Tuesday, May 05, 2015

A Game Of Thrones: the people of Miami and the populous South should support the civic uprisings in the North ... by gimleteye

Florida is not run from the state legislature or the governor's executive office. Those rights and responsibilities belong to the billionaires who occupy the real thrones in their respective Florida Kingdoms. In Miami and Fort Lauderdale and on the beaches, they would have it that people are too apathetic and disconnected to pay attention to the civic uprisings in the north over billions of gallons of toxic waste being dumped by the US Army Corps of Engineers into the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee Rivers.

The HBO series Game of Thrones isn't popular because it is science fiction. It is popular because in the science fiction there exists an accurate, secular parable of political power.

In the staging of George RR Martin's novel, there are no bicameral legislatures. No democracies-in-name-only like ours. Just money and power that covets at the point of a sword.

One can overlay that formula to describe Florida today and do perfectly well. Don't listen to Governor Rick Scott attempting to explain the rosy state of the state: just watch Game of Thrones and transpose it to Florida.

In Florida's Game of Thrones, there are also seven kingdoms.

The largest and most powerful -- our King's Landing -- are intertwined: Big Sugar and Big Cattle.

Then there are Kingdoms are Sprawl and Rock Mining. Both these Kingdoms flow from land use controlled by our King's Landing and their Lannisters: the Lykes, the Fanjul families and their ministers.

The Kingdom of Water works hand in hand with the two other Kingdoms: the Kingdom of Electricy and Kingdom of Finance. In reality, all their Kings hide behind public relations departments and corporate veils.

Florida's Seven Kingdoms plot to extract great wealth from the earth and minimize to every practical extent paying the costs. This is reality.

In the HBO series, the Kingdoms have identifiable family leaders: the Lannisters, the Starks, the Baratheans. It is so complicated, even George RR Martin needs an Excel spreadsheet to keep track.

In Florida, it is actually easier because all an observer has to do is to watch the outcome. The easiest outcome to observe of all is water pollution. The biggest problem with observing water pollution is that it is everywhere.

Big Cattle and Big Sugar billionaires dictate the water management system and operational standards that turned Lake Okeechobee into one of the world's largest irrigation systems and cesspools at the same time. Why, this morning in Fort Myers, the news reports of a man who touched fresh water contaminated by the Kingdoms and contracted a flesh eating bacteria. Tell me that's not a worthy punishment from our Game of Thrones?

Consider this subplot: how US Senator and GOP hopeful Marco Rubio was a Jeb Bush knight who proved his mettle in the state legislature, helping push through a diminished water quality standard in 2003 sought by the Kings of the West and the East and the South.

There are two other kingdoms that press in from all sides: the Kingdom of rock miners who extract phosphates and lime rock and the Kingdom of Sprawl whose armies consume wetlands with the same joy and purpose of feudal soldiers of Europe ransacking towns and villages centuries ago, claiming the spoils for their lords. The Kings of Water, Electricity and Finance serve their purposes with congeniality and feasts, throwing bones to the starving dogs who circle the table.

The common people and land owners are victimized by this Florida Game of Thrones just like the one watched by millions on HBO. But here in Florida, there is no Dragon or Army of Unsullied to a fictional rescue.

What unites the Kingdoms in this Game of Thrones is a single purpose: to externalize costs so that the Kings can continue to harvest massive profits and wealth. The only end game is to become more powerful and wealthier.

When too much attention is drawn on their pollution, for example, they blame septic tanks of the little people.

For the seasons of Florida's real life Game of Thrones, the people have been complacent, partly because they are persuaded that selfishness will be rewarded the same way as it does, the greed of Kings.

All that nonsense about culture wars is just chatter soaking up the weight of time. Strip it, and you come to money and power and the Seven Kingdoms of Florida: Big Sugar, Big Cattle, Sprawl, Rock Mining, Water, Electricity, and Finance.

Government of the people, by the people, and for the people is nothing compared to Florida's Game of Thrones. The state of Florida is a figment of the imagination. Whatever legitimacy our democracy once afforded citizens has been blown to pieces by corrupt campaign finance practices.

If you are inclined to agree that there is something rotten in the heart of Florida, pay attention to the civic uprisings in the north about water pollution; about the streaming of toxics from Lake Okeechobee to the east and west coasts of the Empire.

With all uprisings there is a tipping point, and with the Kings of the Seven Kingdoms of Florida there must be uneasy awareness that as slowly as Kingdoms rise, when they fall, they fall much faster.

5 comments:

You could've used the Walking Dead. Terminus, the Governor, the "W" people. They even had the Libertarians with two rules don't lie and you have to call it, and then of course there is the walking dead themselves.

I agree, "The Walking Dead" is the next closest analogue to our democracy. These shows are popular because they do reflect what people are experiencing on a visceral level, even if the plots are graphically over-the-top compared to what most experience in their daily lives.

Actually "We the People" has to be understood like the Bible: In context of the times.When it was uttered it meant the Man present with some say and property, really the "chosen People in charge of the herd".

So these industrialist just seek to attain a more perfect union in they're image, for the benefit of they're vision for the rest of the unwashed masses. See, it all fits and makes perfect sense.

Brilliantly done. Florida's oligarchs called out.Step number one: define the problem. Now letsfigure out how to solve it. As you said, the biggerthey are, the harder they fall. Did you see how fastthe got the TV series Kane off of the air when itstarted to get to close to their real character. Their greed will undo them. And those of us whowill engineer it know who we are. Stay the course.

Follow us by Email

Quotes hall of fame - worth another look:

Jonathon Dunlop of Australia about the Miami Airport:"This is the most disorganized shambles of an airport that exists on this earth.''April 01, 2007 Eye on Miami Comment on Post__________________________________On "Colony Collapse Disorder":Anonymous said...I say lets wait till the last tree is going to be cut down, the last bit of oil used, the last lowland coastal areas flooded before we make any rash decisions that might effect the economy.April 21, 2007 Eye on Miami Comment_________________________________On Bee “Colony Collapse Disorder” being blamed on cell phones:Anonymous said...Hmmm. What are bees doing with cell phones, anyhow?April 20, 2007 Eye on Miami Comment_________________________________On South Florida Water Supply:Ron Littlepage said...Unfortunately, we know who would win when it comes to allowing development to run amok and it's not the wildlife.April 20, 2007 Eye on Miami Comment Post_________________________________Lesley Blackner said:In Florida, the sad reality is that government exists to serve the development machine, not the citizenry. That's why it's proper to say that in Florida we have government of the developer, by the developer and for the developer.April 22, 2007 Eye on Miami Post_________________________________On City of Miami and Miami Dade County giving $1,000,000 each to Jorge Perez’s Related Group (The Group's 2005 revenues were $3.25 billion.):"It makes as much sense as me donating half my paycheck to Warren Buffett.”May 6, 2007 Miami Herald Columnist Ana Menendez_________________________________On the FCAT Test:"'Florida is a serial mis-user of test scores.''Bob Schaeffer, director for Massachusetts-based FairTest.May 25, 2007 Miami Herald_________________________________Clifford Schulman (Greenberg Traurig Lobbyist):"This is the first time in 33 years that any one has accused me of fraud." June 28, 2007 Miami HeraldI say: hmm.__________________________________Max Rameau, Homeless Activist:"I respect Ron Book for his work with the Homeless Trust, but the Liberty City community and others have given broad support to this idea. I don't know that a big-time millionaire lobbyist can tell us what is best for Liberty City and the black community.'' July 28, 2007 Miami Herald__________________________________"After years of mismanagement under a board of political appointees and neighborhood activists, Miami-Dade County administrators have proposed a new way to run the troubled empowerment zone program. The plan: Bring in new political appointees and neighborhood activists."November 6, 2007 Miami Herald: Reporter Scott Hiaasen______________________________________"Saying "Greater Everglades" and "Northern Everglades" is not saying Everglades -- other places are deserving of being protected too, but there is only one Everglades. The main thing is to keep the 'Main Thing' the main thing -- which, lately, has not been the main thing." Bob Mooney - on Listserve "Everglades Commons"________________________________________"Does anyone in their right mind believe that Florida could conduct postal balloting without a major screw-up or scandal? Heavens, no! The whole country is keenly aware that our state is a sump hole of incompetence and corruption."Carl Hiaasen - March 16, 2008 Miami Herald_______________________________________On the Charter Review: "Commissioners want us to vote on their own pet changes, ideas the review team explicitly rejected. And, they're throwing their blatantly self-serving ballot questions at us at the same time. What a slap in the face to the charter review team — and to all of us!" Michael Lewis of Miami Today - April 10, 2008______________________________________On the Miami Dade County Commission:''Unfortunately, this is a commission that would build a cyanide factory next to a playground if you hired the right 12 lobbyists,'' Miami Lakes Councilman Michael Pizzi - May 14, 2008______________________________________"The days where we’re just building sprawl forever, those days are over. I think that Republicans, Democrats, everybody recognizes that that’s not a smart way to build communities." President Barack Obama in Fort Meyers - February 10, 2009______________________________________"So."Dick Cheney's response when told that two thirds of Americans did not support the war in Iraq. - Time Magazine 2008______________________________________"It seems like a bad idea can always find a home in the Florida Legislature." - Howard Simon - Executive Director of Florida ACLU - March 24, 2010

______________________________________Complete this sentence: South Florida really needs a..."Regional plan for controlled growth (before it becomes a concrete jungle similar to Houston), and a completely new set of elected officials that make decisions based on what's good for the future of South Florida instead of what's good for their wallets. - Jack McCabe, Real Estate expert who predicted the housing boom's end. - August 29, 2011 Miami Herald